Burnt Matchstick is a creation by Artist Karl Unnasch, whose work has evolved into three-dimensional stained glass and art glass sculptural installations of various forms.

Creation of the piece was made possible in part thanks to a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. Its inaugural stint in Rochester, Minnesota drew to a close in October 2017, at which time it was moved to California to be featured in the Sculpture in Civic Center Park exhibition in Newport Beach.

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A focal piece in the Newport Beach Sculpture in Civic Center Park Exhibition until 2019, Burnt Matchstick is the first of its kind.

Impactful and monumental by day, the revolutionary outdoor piece turns into a glowing beacon of rich color by night. This 40-foot tower of backlit opalescent glass captures a fleeting moment in time: the split-second after which a burning wooden matchstick has been extinguished by a gust of air.

A vast play on scale for so trivial an object, Burnt Matchstick is a call to reflection and touches on everything from the boundless potential of a transformative force to notions of fragility, ephemerality, transience and beyond.

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THE FUTURE OF

BURNT MATCHSTICK

Following the Sculpture in Civic Center Park exhibition, which draws to a close in Fall of 2019, Burnt Matchstick will become available for permanent acquisition or for interim exhibition at other venues.

Parties interested in either hosting or acquiring Burnt Matchstick may contact the Artistdirectly.

Burnt Matchstick consists of about 90% Kokomo Opalescent Glass from Kokomo, Indiana — one of the oldest and largest, most reputable opalescent glass producers in the country if not the world.

“Karl Unnasch is a

mid-west whisperer and national treasure.”

— Chris Pennington,

Twin Cities Public Arts Facilitator

“…[The] arts panel’s top choice…”

— Los Angeles Times

“A matchstick — an innocuous,tiny bit of wood. But it is also a startingpoint for something potentially much,much greater than itself.In its burnt state it begs the staggeringquestion... of what the implicationsmight have been.”